The whole Shuttle program was riddled with problems caused mostly by schedules and egos.
I disagree. The shuttle program worked exactly as advertised/designed/built. It was designed, built and sold as a 98% effective system. 126 flights. 124 successful ones.
98.4% success rate. Just what they paid for. They would not risk a 95% success rate and could not afford a 100% success rate. That was the only way they were ever going to have a shuttle fleet.
There has only been 1 MISSION that required all 7 astronauts— 6hw time they repaired the Hubble Telescope.
the entire program was a waste of money
We coulda had 20 one and two-man shuttles operating under the Lifting Body Reentry Vehicle program at 1/5th the cost.